The man identified as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto in a new HBO documentary has something to say: Wrong again, world. From a report: In the just-released HBO film on the history of the world’s biggest digital currency — Money Electric: The Bitcoin Mystery — documentary filmmaker Cullen Hoback comes to the conclusion that the anonymous creator of Bitcoin was none other than a long-time member of the community and early Bitcoin developer Peter Todd. Todd dismissed the claim in the documentary, released yesterday, and denied it again when asked by The Register.
“[Hoback’s] evidence for me being Satoshi is the same kind of coincidence-based, circumstantial thinking that fuels conspiracies like QAnon,” Todd told us in an email. “Which is ironic, given that [Hoback’s] previous big project was a documentary on QAnon. He clearly didn’t try to debunk his theories either.” Hoback’s previous project — Q: Into the Storm — aimed to unmask the person behind QAnon, perhaps giving him an interest in uncovering the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. Todd, however, thinks Hoback was just trying to drum up interest in his new film.
“I think [Hoback] only included the Satoshi claim as a marketing ploy: he was really creating a documentary about Bitcoin, and needed a hook to get media attention,” Todd said. “He picked me to accuse mainly because I was an unlikely candidate, which helped drum up even more attention. I don’t think he had any interest in finding the real truth.”
